Tag: acid

A septuagenarian, Joseph Adetunji, who allegedly bathed his son’s face with acid, on Friday appeared before an Ojo Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.

Arraigned with Adetunji, 78, was his son-in-law, Abayomi Balogun, 60, who allegedly conspired with him to commit the crime.

Both are being tried for conspiracy and assault causing grievous harm.

Th two accused, according to the Prosecutor, Police Insp. Uche Simeon, committed the offences on Aug. 29, 2015 at 6.00 p.m. at 32 Road, A Close, Festac Town, Lagos.

He said the accused conspired and sprayed acid on the face of Mr Adesoji Adetunji, son to the first accused (the septuagenarian) and brother-in-law to the second accused, following a family dispute.

“Your Worship, I do not know the kind of dispute that will make a father to disfigure his son in this manner, the son has gone totally blind,” he said.

The offences contravened Sections 172 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Section 172 stipulates three years imprisonment, while Section 411 prescribes two years for offenders.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty.

The accused, a retired mechanical engineer, told the court that he sprayed his son with acid out of self-defence.

“My son, Adesoji, is the proverbial black sheep of the family, and on several occasions, he had attempted to kill me to take possession of his inheritance,” Adetunji said.

The accused, who showed the court the scars of several stabbings by his son, said he had suffered in the hands of his son.

He told the court, “I have trained all my children to the best of my ability, I sent them all to higher institutions, his brother is a lawyer and before the incident, he refused to work as he indulges in drinking alcohol.

“On the day in question, I was in my daughter’s house trying to help her and my son-in-law to repair their car.

“My son came to me and his sister’s husband with a broken bottle demanding money and in self-defence, I sprayed battery acid on him.”

The Magistrate, Mr A. A. Adesanya, reprimanded the accused for taking laws into his hands, adding that he should have involved the police in resolving the matter.

“Seeing that three of the complainant’s siblings are here to testify to his unruly behaviours toward their father is an indication that things were really not going right between father and son.

“The police should have been involved before it degenerated to this,” he said.

Adesanya granted the two accused N100,000 bail each with two sureties each in like sum and adjourned the case until March 14.

Fourteen-year-old Victoria Emmanuel’s joy at turning a new age was suddenly truncated when one of her friends bathed her with acid, burning part of her face, chest and back.

The friend, 13-year-old Moshood Yusuf, had turned up to celebrate Emmanuel’s birthday on March 29, around the night market in Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos Mainland.

As part of the celebration, Emmanuel’s peers were pouring water. But, Yusuf reportedly rushed into a nearby shop, picked up a bottle and emptied its content on Emmanuel.

He was said to have believed the bottle contained a disinfectant known as Izal.

Narrating her ordeal to reporters who visited her home at No 1 Babaelegbe Street, Mafoluku home, on Thursday, Emmanuel who just got discharged from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, said she was on an errand to fetch water when the incident happened.

She said, “I was carrying a big bucket on my head but on the road, they put it down and started pouring the water on me to celebrate my birthday. Some were pouring dirty water on me and others sand.

“That was how Moshood ran into a shop and brought out a container. There was something inside and I told him not to pour it on me because we don’t know what was in it. He opened it, smelled it and said it smelt like chemical.

“We told him again that he shouldn’t pour that on me but he didn’t listen. As I walked past him, he poured the content on my body from behind. I screamed and ran towards the tap but he got there before me and opened it so that water would pour on my body.

“While I was under the tap, the woman who owns the place chased us away that I was wasting her water, though she owed me N70.”

Witnesses said Emmanuel fainted and was rushed to Edmark Hospital in the area, from where she was moved to LASUTH.

Moshood was arrested by policemen from Makinde Police Station but was later released. His parents were seen at the Emmanuel’s home begging for peace.

The 24-year-old Akwa-Ibom indigene, Iniubong Ime, who was bathed with acid by his ex-girlfriend on the night of Monday, March 6, 2017, has said he has forgiven her and bears no grudge against her.

Ime and his erstwhile girlfriend Lucy dated for about a year. The relationship was a troubled one, with Lucy being the source of quarrels between him and everyone close to him. Tired of the nuisance she always created, Ime called off the relationship, got Lucy a job and an apartment.

Ime said the breakup was not peaceful, adding that Lucy started stalking him.

Daily Trust reports that, “Sometimes, when she spots me with anyone, male or female, she wouldn’t care to know who the person was and would just begin to insult them,” Ime said.

And on March 6, 2017, Lucy knocked on Ime’s door and bathe him with acid as soon as he opened the door. She ran away but her mother handed her over to a Local Government chairman, who was to hand her over to the police the next day. She, however, escaped from the chairman’s custody and she’s still at large.

Reminiscing on the events of the fateful day, Ime said he was happy to be alive, adding that he forgave her the day the incident happened.

He said, ” Our major concern now is for me to recover. My treatment bills are being footed by my family and friends and it has not been easy. You know that injuries of this magnitude need a lot of care and money. So, I will appreciate if government at any level, interest groups and kind-hearted individuals can come to my aid so that I can recover.

Vengeance “wouldn’t solve anything. I have decided to let it go and forgive her. In fact, I forgave her from the very day it happened. I thank God I’m still alive. I won’t take her back because I had long broken up with her before the incident. But I can relate normally with her. I have no hard feelings towards her. We won’t be lovers again, but she won’t be my enemy either. “

A 25-year-old woman, Ogochukwu Nwosu, is in a critical condition at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Surulere, Lagos State, after she was bathed with substance suspected to be acid.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Ogochukwu was at Ilasa bus stop, on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, when a man allegedly dropped from a motorcycle and poured acid on her.

He was said to have jumped back on the motorcycle and fled the scene.

The victim, who sustained burns on her face, neck, breasts, among other parts of her body, was reportedly rushed to LUTH by passersby.

Ogochukwu, who spoke with our correspondent from her hospital bed, accused one Mrs. Chidi, the wife of the man who had proposed marriage to her, as the culprit.

She alleged that Mrs. Chidi had been threatening her on the telephone and through text messages immediately she learnt of her husband’s intention to marry her (Ogochukwu).

She said she had turned down Mr. Chidi’s proposal because he was married, adding that the latter persisted.

“On Thursday, I had closed from Computer Village where I work. Around 8pm, when I reached Ilasa bus stop, I dropped off the bus.

“I was about to cross to the other side of the road when a man dropped from a motorcycle and poured something on me. He immediately fled on the motorcycle. People came to my rescue and took me to the hospital.

“I suspect Mrs. Chidi because she had been threatening me before the incident. And while I was on admission at the hospital, she called and spoke with my brother, saying that was just the beginning,” she added.

Ogochukwu’s brother, Peter, said he recorded a part of the conversation with Mrs. Chidi on his mobile phone.

Peter said he reported the incident at the Itire Police Division, adding that Mrs. Chidi was arrested and detained for two days before the case was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba.

Our correspondent, however, gathered that the police admitted the suspect to bail shortly after the matter got to the SCIID.

PUNCH Metro learnt that counsel to the victim, Louis Nwaugbala and Anthony Obi, had already petitioned the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force Headquarters, Abuja, over the matter.

A copy of the petition, obtained by our correspondent, read in part, “Sometime in 2012, one Mr. Chidi approached our client and started making advances to her and promised to marry her. But she vehemently refused the proposal. She told him that she was not interested in the marriage since he was already married.

“Upon Mr. Chidi’s insistence of wanting to marry our client and even making preparations to visit our client’s family to formalise the marriage rites, our client advised Mr. Chidi to inform his wife of his plans to take our client as his second wife, since both of them will be cohabiting in the same house.

“Immediately Mr. Chidi made his plans known to his wife, all hell broke loose as Mrs. Chidi started calling and persistently threatening our client’s life through phone calls, text and Whatsapp messages.”

The petition alleged that the suspect threatened to wreak havoc before December 2016, the purported month of the traditional marriage between Mr. Chidi and Ogochukwu.

It added that Ogochukwu was persuaded against reporting the threat to the police by Mr. Chidi, who allegedly promised to persuade his wife to accept the union.

It said tragedy struck when the victim was attacked while she was returning from work on Thursday, October 6, 2016.

Nwaugbala, the victim’s lawyer, said justice must be served in the case, adding that Ogochukwu must be flown abroad for plastic surgery by the suspect and her husband.

“That is the only thing that can assuage the damage presently done to her. She should be flown abroad for treatment,” he added.

When contacted, Mr. Chidi declined comment, referring our correspondent to the police at the SCIID.

He said, “I cannot speak with you, neither can my wife. The case is under investigation at the SCIID. Go and speak with the police at Panti; they are the ones investigating it. We cannot make any comment.”

She explained that Mrs. Chidi was released on bail because she could not be directly linked to the attack.

She said, “It was reported that the victim was bathed with acid by two men on a motorcycle. The victim alleged that she suspected the woman because she (the victim) is a girlfriend to Mr. Chidi and because she (victim) might likely marry the man, Mrs. Chidi might have planned the attack.

“Mrs. Chidi was picked up, made to undergo investigation and the command could not get any clue linking her to the case for now. And to protect her right, she was granted bail. Investigation is still ongoing to unravel what actually happened. Anyone linked to the case will be duly prosecuted.”

Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.

Three-year-old Darasimi Ogunwunmi, a Kindergarten One pupil, who drank caustic soda left carelessly around his classroom by teachers of his private school, Fahsal Children’s School, Ilupeju Estate, Idiroko, Ogun State in November 2015, has died.

After nine months of agony, being unable to swallow either liquid or solid food and six different surgeries at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Darasimi succumbed to his injuries few days after his last surgical operation on Monday, September 12.

The last surgery was another attempt to open up the boy’s stomach and throat which had become damaged by the chemical, which he drank when he was thirsty in school.

For Darasimi, the last days of his short life were spent in a condition his mother, Toyin, described as a living hell.

Toyin told our correspondent, “My son would have died long ago if not because of the money that kind Nigerians raised for his treatment. The money financed his surgeries and rehabilitation since that time.

“If I knew he had no chance of survival, I would have prayed that God should give him rest long ago because my son suffered for every day he lived after that incident. Every day, I saw him lying in the hospital bed or sitting at home struggling to drink ordinary water with pain, I cried bitterly.”

Saturday PUNCH had exclusively reported in January and February how the proprietor of Fahsal, Mrs. Fausat Abubakar, allegedly introduced soap making business on the school premises.

But rather than remove the production far from the reach of her pupils, the boy’s parents alleged that the soap was being produced right beside the classrooms.

On November 19, 2015, the worse happened when Darasimi became thirsty and his teachers turned a deaf ear to his incessant cry for water.

Part of the caustic soda already mixed and allegedly left around was what Darasimi drank from.

His teachers only realised what had happened when the boy was found outside his classroom crying and bleeding from the mouth, it was learnt.

The teachers applied palm oil to the boy’s mouth but rushed him to the hospital when they realised his case was critical.

Ogun government promised us justice, did nothing – Boy’s parents

After Saturday PUNCH’s story, the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Modupe Mujota, said that she had constituted a team to investigate the case.

But the family explained that nothing had been done about bringing the proprietor of their son’s school to justice.

Our correspondent contacted the commissioner on Thursday to ask if anything was ever done about the boy’s case and what the outcome of the state’s investigation was.

“There was a full investigation. But because there was no hard evidence, it became difficult to take the issue up legally. We combed the premises of the school and nothing was found, probably because time had elapsed and the school might have cleaned up,” Mujota said.

When asked what step the ministry took after the completion of the investigation, she said an action was taken against the proprietor.

But the commissioner said she could not disclose details of what that action was when asked for details.

She said, “There are larger factors to be considered when you want to close down a school like the population the school is serving.”

When our correspondent finally told Mrs. Mujota that the boy was dead, she expressed surprise and said “we were not informed.”

She also said after our initial reports, the state government team had visited the family twice.

“If they say we did not visit, between when and when are they talking about? We have pictures as evidence of our team’s visit to the child and his mother. There were allegations from the school proprietor that the boy’s parents were trying to extort her. We went to verify the claim.”

Copyright PUNCH.All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.